As Time Goes By
by littlesheep
Summary: Follow-up to "It Only Took One Kiss To Know". How will things turn out for Stella and Mac after the romantic New Years night? We will see, as time goes by. StellaMac all the way. Chapter 3 up now! SMacked
1. Burning Heat

**This story is the follow-up to "It Only Took One Kiss To Know" and it's sort of a 'never ending story' - at least a long runner. Sort of following the characters through the year... Contrary to my other stories, I'm going to write this one chapter by chapter - so it's not finished yet and I have no idea how long it will be or where it might take us. Might also depend on how you like it ;-) **

**Please review quickly, I will update already on Thursday - I know this doesn't sound like the typical Valentine's story (that's because it isn't), but since it's V-day on Thursday, so it will be in the story. And if you don't see this chapter before I post the second one - would you review this first chapter BEFORE you read the second??? I'm just too curious about how this plot and the TBC work and I can only know that if you tell me :-)**

**-**

_It's still the same old story  
A fight for love and glory  
A case of do or die  
The world will always welcome lovers  
As time goes by_

_(from the title song of the movie "Casablanca") _**  
**

_-  
_

_Chapter 1 – Burning Heat_

The next morning, Stella woke up from a muffled noise on the other side of the room. Trying to remember where she was, she sleepily blinked into the darkness.

"Mac??"

He slowly approached the bed and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. Go back to sleep, I'll be back in an hour, promise," he whispered quietly.

Stella narrowed her eyes and peeked for the alarm clock on the nightstand. It said 5:15 a.m. She didn't really want to think about it or actually know what this was about, but somehow she had to ask.

"And where exactly are you going at this time?"

"You know, I always wake up at 4:30 a.m., ever since I've been a Marine, it's just training. Can't break the habit… So I get up then, go running, then get the morning paper and something to eat and well, usually go to work early then," Mac explained.

Stella shot him another look as if she wanted to examine his mental state. Then she made an unidentifiable grumbling sound, pulled the blanket up to her nose and rolled over to the other side.

XXXXX

After he returned from his morning run, Mac silently slipped back into the room and tiptoed over to the bathroom where he took a nice refreshing shower. Then he returned to the bed and sat down next to the still soundly asleep Stella. His attempt to get her attention by tenderly brushing his fingers along her left arm was answered by an unwilling noise.

"Hey sleepy, you wanna get up now?" he softly whispered in her ear.

"No!" she determinedly returned and tried to pull her arm away from his touch and back under the blanket.

"Come on, Stella… A nice, warm shower is waiting for you. I even put the bath robe on the heater so it's nice and comfortable for you. How about that?"

Stella turned around reluctantly and blinked a few times to look at him. She had to grin against her will when she noticed that he wasn't wearing anything as he was sitting next to her on her side of the bed. She eyed him briefly. One could wake up to worse views, that much was for sure. She gave him another pensive look.

"Will you get the robe for me so I can wear it on the way to the bathroom?" she asked in a slightly whining tone. "I'm feeling a little cold…"

This was merely an excuse to ogle him walking over to the bathroom – and back – undressed, but considering the fact that she was also undressed under the blankets, it didn't seem too unbelievable.

"Sure, I'll be right back," Mac therefore smiled at her and got up to return to the bathroom while Stella's eyes followed him with a satisfied look. Not bad… really not bad.

XXXXX

"You stay with me?" she playfully looked at him when she dropped the bathing coat in front of the shower and stepped inside.

"Well, I already showered, but who am I to reject such an offer?" Mac smiled back. "And besides, I have to make sure you're not getting cold again, right?"

"Very unselfish," Stella chuckled.

"Want me to soap your back?" he asked.

"Uhum…"

Mac took the bottle of shampoo, put a little in his hands and rubbed them until there was a nice amount of foam. Then he gently put it on her back and started to distribute it everywhere. Stella closed her eyes and enjoyed the soft and tender touches. When his hands started moving to her front and lower body, she reluctantly interrupted.

"Mac…"

"What is it?" he softly asked as he turned her around to kiss her wet lips.

"We can't… There… there are no condoms left," she shrugged.

He sighed as he realized what she was talking about.

"Yeah, you're right. Too bad…"

"See now why I said it wasn't a good idea to try to make balloon animals out of condoms?" she joked.

"Hey, the last one was a perfect caterpillar in motion!" Mac exclaimed.

"Yeah right…" Stella teased him. "It looked like a snake that had swallowed a bowling ball. But either way, I'm afraid you'll have to behave yourself until later."

With that she gently pushed his hands back and stepped out of the shower to towel herself. Mac followed her and started rubbing her back.

"Hopefully not too much later…" he whispered into her ear from behind, his warm breath tingling her neck.

"We'll see…" she whispered back.

XXXXX

"I hope you had an unforgettable stay with us at the Waldorf Astoria," Mac's friend, the general manager of the hotel, said as they were thanking him for the hospitality he had shown them.

Stella was wondering if she saw a little wink at Mac when he said that, but Mac just thanked him for the nice room and told him they would have to meet some time.

"I'll drop you off at your place so that you can change clothes and we'll meet back at the lab, okay?" he asked as he held the door of the cab open for her. Since they had taken a limo the evening before, neither of them had a car available.

"Sure, sounds good."

XXXXX

Half an hour later, Mac opened the door to his office with a groan after looking at the load of paper work on his desk. He grabbed for his cell phone and dialed a number.

"What's up?" Stella replied on the other end of the line.

"Did you see your desk yet?" he asked with a slightly desperate undertone in his voice.

"No, I'm still looking for it. But I'm sure it _has_to be somewhere here under all these files…" she sarcastically returned.

"Wanna take off?"

"We were only out for one week – and that was between Christmas and New Years… Doesn't anybody work here besides us? And where does all this paper work come from anyway? It's holiday season for God's sake…" Stella cursed instead of an answer.

"Hey Stella?" Mac softly interrupted.

"What?"

"Dinner tonight at my place and some kitsch movie afterwards? You pick…"

"Alright, but don't even think about working late," she teasingly warned him. "I don't like being stood up."

"Wouldn't think about that for a second," he promised seriously.

XXXXX

The following weeks passed, Stella and Mac were regularly seeing each other, always careful that nobody would notice what was going on between them. Partly out of concern what the department would say, but mainly because they weren't willing to share it with anyone. It was their sweet little secret and for the moment, they planned on keeping it this way. Everything went more or less regularly and normally and nobody seemed to notice. Both of them had nearly gotten used to playing innocent on the job and whenever possible, they enjoyed being together.

Until things suddenly took an almost dramatic turn…

XXXXX

"I'm sorry, I have to go. Seems Lindsay needs some help at a scene, I'll be back as soon as I can," Mac announced after he ended a phone call late at night.

"Want me to come with you?" Stella asked half-heartedly from her side of the bed. Not that she was really looking forward to trading her warm bed for a crime scene in a cold February night, but somehow she felt the obligation to at least ask.

"And how would I explain your showing up in the middle of the night?" Mac winked at her, indicating with a motion of his right hand that she should stay in bed.

Stella thankfully pulled the covers closer to her chest.

"Be careful!"

"I will," Mac said and kissed her softly on the lips before he reached for his jacket and left the bedroom.

XXXXX

Thirty minutes later, Stella awakened from the sound of her ringing cell phone.

"I knew I should have gone right with him…" she grumbled while she reached for it on the nightstand next to her.

"Bonasera?" she answered the phone. "Hey Lindsay, what's up?"

"Stella, hi. Sorry to wake you, but would you happen to know where I can find Mac?" Lindsay replied slightly out of breath.

_Mac?? I thought he is…_

Stella immediately sat up in bed. What was going on here?

"How come you think I would know where to find him in the middle of the night?" she wondered slightly annoyed and concerned.

"Ah, I don't know, it's just …"

"Why don't you try his cell?" Stella interrupted, knowing that Mac had it with him. After all he only left half an hour ago. And as far as he had told her, Lindsay was awaiting him – but of course she couldn't tell her that.

"That's the thing, I've been trying to call him for over 20 minutes, he doesn't respond. I thought you might know if he had plans tonight so that he wouldn't be available or so…"

_What??? How is that possible, I thought she called him?!? If not her, then who the hell did and where is he now?_

Stella reacted with a mixture of total concern and anger, unsure whether Mac had lied to her about the call or if something had happened to him. For a moment she let herself drown in a whiff of panic, then she pulled herself together and tried to focus again.

"Hold on, I'll be with you in 15 minutes," she replies, professionalism coming first. "Where are you and what happened?"

Lindsay gave her the address and briefly told her about a fire in a retirement home. Firefighters were still trying to extinguish the fire, a few people had been saved from the burning building, but it was to be expected that there were several victims inside who didn't make it.

When Stella arrived at the scene, she saw Hawkes talking with Lindsay and a man in a firefighter uniform who seemed to be the one in charge. She cleared her throat and tried to suppress her worries about Mac before she approached the group.

"Stella Bonasera, New York Crime Lab. What have we got here?" she introduced herself.

"Division Commander Alcott, nice to meet you," her vis-à-vis greeted her back. "We can't say how the fire started yet, but that might be yours to find out later anyway. For now, my men stopped the fire and are currently going in to make sure there are no hot spots where the fire can come up again and to secure the building. I can only let you in when and if they say it's safe to go."

"Alright," Stella agreed. "Any information on victims yet?"

"Twenty-two people got out alive, either on their own when the fire started or they were saved by my guys. Some of them have minor injuries like light burn wounds or lacerations, all of them have more or less severe smoke poisoning. As far as we can say for now, none of them in critical condition. According to information we got from the manager of the facility, fourteen people are reported missing – two members of the nursing staff and twelve residents. We can't say for sure if all of them were in the building when the fire started, but if they were…" he paused and turned around to look at the smoking house.

Stella nodded. "I see… You will let us know when we can start processing the scene?"

"Sure, Detective," he nodded back and turned to leave.

"So," Lindsay interrupted Stella's thoughts, "heard from Mac yet?"

Stella briefly froze.

Mac… Where was he?

TBC

-

**Okay - stop! Review first, then move on ;-) Thanks!!! Love you guys, xxxlittlesheepxxx **


	2. I Promise

**This one's all about promises - I promised to post today, so here we go. The song at the end of the chapter is "I Promise" by Texas Lightning, lyrics by Jane Comerford - very sweet country ballad.**

**And another promise - I promise to personally reply to each review that's already in four chapter 1 (and of course those that might still want to review the first chapter :-) - I just wanted to update fast, so you'll get the personal "Thank you" a bit later.**

**For now: THANK YOU! to everyone who already reviewed - keep reading and replying :-) **

-

_Chapter 2 – I Promise_

After most of the building was secured and released by the firefighters, the CSI team started to process the scene and to collect evidence. In the meantime, Hawkes had started his shift and Danny was also joining them. Figuring that there were enough people on the job and that she herself didn't need to supervise, Stella excused herself and went to her car. Inside, she wondered where to go now. Home to see if Mac had returned or left a message? She knew it was nonsense because naturally he would have tried her cell after noticing she wasn't picking up. She tried to call him, but got no answer. The phone was off. Stella decided to return to her apartment anyway, and after a quick shower and change of clothes, she would go to the lab.

XXXXX

An hour later, Stella went down to the morgue to talk to Sid about the victims that had already been brought in. Lindsay, Danny and Hawkes were processing the evidence they had collected at the scene and she felt kind of useless and out of space in her current state of mind.

"Can you give me something already?" she asked after she found Sid who was just examining one of the victims from the retirement home.

He put down his glasses and looked up at her.

"You look like you didn't get much sleep, you feeling okay?" he asked a little concerned.

Stella frowned and motioned at the victim in front of him, an elderly man with no apparent burn wounds.

"They found 10 bodies yet, still looking for three more," he started to report.

"Three more? Earlier at the scene we were told that there were 14 people missing," Stella wondered.

"Correct. But one resident showed up around 7:30, wanted to sneak through the backdoor," Sid explained.

"Huh?"

"He had spent the night with his secret girlfriend in town and didn't want the nursing staff to know about it. So he used to sneak out late at night – and returned before breakfast so that nobody ever noticed," Sid grinned.

Stella shook her head. Normally this was an almost cute and funny little story, right now she wasn't in the mood for it.

"Hum. COD?"

"Smoke poisoning on all the victims that we've quickly examined so far. None of them has serious burn wounds, except for one unidentified male. Body has been completely burned, but according to the descriptions, he's not one of the residents OR the staff. I found a wound in his skull, he suffered blunt force trauma. Could be COD or it just knocked him out and he died from the fire," Sid continued.

Stella hadn't heard anything he said after "unidentified male". Her heart pounded in her chest and she felt nausea rising up her throat.

"Where is he?" she choked out.

"Over there," Sid pointed to an autopsy table on the other end of the room. "But why are you so interested in that particular body?"

Stella ignored his comment and headed over to the burned corpse. After a quick look at it, she felt tears of relief clouding her eyes. Whoever this poor bastard was, he had long hair and had been wearing a mustache. She felt a little weak and reached for a nearby table to support herself.

"Stella, everything alright with you?" Sid asked, now seriously concerned.

"I'm fine, Sid, thanks. If you get anything new, give me a call?"

"Sure…" he replied pensively as he watched her leaving the morgue.

XXXXX

Back at the lab, Stella wanted to check on the others before trying to figure out what she could do to find Mac. When she reached the evidence room, she heard Danny giggling.

"Maybe he's with a secret girlfriend? Ya know, I think he's been acting a bit strange lately. Kinda suspicious and mysterious, know what I mean? Could be things just got a bit wild last night and he just forgot about time, huh? Come on, even Mac's just a man, right?"

"Don't you have work to do?!" Stella exclaimed furiously. "Instead of making stupid jokes you should focus on the evidence. Do we already have results on where the fire started and how? Doesn't seem to me as if we had. Get back to work and do your job, you're not being paid for chatting."

She turned around and left in a hurry while Danny and Hawkes looked after her.

"What the hell was that? I've never seen her so upset…" Hawkes wondered almost shocked.

Danny shook his head, eyes wide open.

"No idea, man… I wasn't even serious," he mumbled and turned his attention back to the evidence on the table.

Flack, who had witnessed the scene quietly from the door, figured that they would be able to handle the processing alone and decided to check on Stella. He quickly followed her through the corridor.

"Hey Stel, wait!" he called after her, but she didn't react. The first door she could find was that to Mac's office. She headed in and slammed the door shut behind her. Flack entered behind her and closed the door again.

"Leave me alone!"

"Stella, what's up with you?" Flack tried to ignore her agitated mood by asking softly and friendly.

"Just go away…" she insisted, a lot weaker this time.

When he approached her and put his right hand on her shoulder, she reluctantly turned around and he could see she was trying to fight back tears.

"You are worried about Mac, right? Look, Stella, I'm sure he's fine and will show up any moment and…"

A loud sob interrupted him.

"Flack, NOTHING is fine! Something happened to him, I know it…"

Now she was crying uncontrollably, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"What… but how do you know?" Flack helplessly asked while he pulled her into his arms to comfort her.

It took her a moment to be able to continue to speak. Flack led her to the couch and pushed her down, then he took a seat next to her and waited until she was ready to talk.

Stella swallowed.

"We… he was with me last night," she started to explain, trying to focus on the important details. "At some point he got a call which he took in the living room. He said Lindsay needed his help at a crime scene and he would have to leave, but said I wouldn't have to come with him. He left and half an hour later Lindsay called me, asking if I knew where Mac was. Of course I told her I didn't and how she came to the idea I would, but she only said she had tried to call him several times and that he wouldn't answer the phone. Flack, I'm sure Mac didn't lie to me. But if Lindsay didn't call him, then who did? And where is he now?"

She started to sob again. Flack reached her a handkerchief to dry her tears and blow her nose.

"We'll find him," he firmly stated. "Have you tried to trace his phone yet?"

"I tried to call him, the phone's turned off," Stella returned quietly.

"Okay. Plan B. Wait a second, let me call someone…" Flack reached for his cell phone and dialed a number. "Jim, it's Don. Listen, I need your help. It's urgent! Can you give me the caller ID and location of the last number that called …" he gave the man on the other end of the line Mac's cell phone number. "Thanks Jim, call me as soon as you got something." He hung up. "Maybe we'll learn something about Mac's whereabouts when we identify the person who called him last night."

Stella nodded thankfully. Then Flack's pager beeped. He looked at it and sighed.

"We got a homicide. Gunshot victim in an apartment building on Times Square," he gave her a questioning look.

"I'll come with you," she confirmed. "The others are working on the evidence of the fire and I can't just sit around here and do nothing."

XXXXX

"Estimated TOD would be between five and eight weeks ago," the coroner told them after he finished his preliminary check. He ordered his assistants to transport the body to the morgue. "The ME will be able to tell you more after the autopsy, for now I can't give you more detailed information."

Stella started processing the apartment while Flack talked to the building manager who had called the police after he had discovered the body. After she was almost done taking pictures and fingerprints, her gaze fell out of the window. She looked out and while she was still wondering how much an apartment in such an exclusive area might cost, she suddenly noticed one thing. The window front of the apartment was directly opposite the Waldorf Astoria hotel. For a moment, Stella's mind started wandering off as memories of the romantic evening with Mac came back. Then she turned around abruptly.

"He died on New Years Eve at about 12:10 a.m.!" she exclaimed.

"What?!" Flack returned with a puzzled look on his face. "How…?"

Stella took a deep breath. Now that she had already told Flack that Mac was with her the other night, she could as well tell him the rest of the story. She knew he would keep it a secret if she asked him to.

"Mac and I were at the Waldorf Astoria that night. The general manager is a good friend of Mac and he owed him something, so he gave us a room for New Years Eve and we had a nice dinner for two at the hotel and spent the night there. While we were watching the fireworks on Times Square from our room, I thought I had seen something like a flash in one of the windows on this side of the street. It looked like gunshot fire, but Mac said it might as well have been a reflection and so I almost forgot about it. Until now…"

Flack breathed out with his eyebrows rising up.

"Phew, that's some story… Well, at least we know the time frame we are dealing with now. And I think Sid will confirm TOD with his autopsy, so most likely nobody will have to know what you saw. Of course if there's doubt about it and charging someone for this murder becomes dependent on your testimony…" he paused.

"Thanks, Don," Stella nodded. Then she started to look pensive again. "You think Mac's disappearance has something to do with this? You think the killer saw us and found out who was in that room that night?"

"Anything is possible," Flack returned slowly. "But why would he only go after him now?"

"I don't know…" Stella sighed desperately. Her cell phone started ringing. She looked at the display and picked up. "Sid, what have you got?" … "Really? Lethal dosage?" … "Okay, we'll check that out. I'm with Flack right now, we can go and talk with the manager right now, we're done here anyway."

She looked over to Flack who had gotten a call himself in the meantime.

"… thanks a lot, Jim," she heard him say. "I owe you one, see ya." He hung up and looked at Stella.

"What did he say?" she whispered.

"The call to Mac's cell phone last night came from a payphone on Mortimer Street," he started telling her what his colleague had found out. He didn't get any further than that.

"MORTIMER???" Stella jumped up in excitement.

Flack looked at her in surprise. "Mean anything to you?"

"The retirement home is on Jesper Road, that's just around the corner! There HAS to be a connection between the call and the fire," she exclaimed.

"And it gets even better," Flack interrupted her after one of the detectives who had continued to interview the building manager of the victim's apartment had handed him a piece of paper. "Our gunshot victim here is one John Masterby, chairman of the foundation that owns the building in which the retirement home was located…"

Stella leaned against the couch and looked at him with concern. The uneasy feeling in her stomach started spreading. And with everything they learned it got even worse.

"Sid just called. He found a certain amount of poison in the blood of all victims who died in the fire. He had the surviving peoples' blood tested at the hospital as well, but they didn't show any poison at all. Neither did the one burned victim with the head wound. What the hell happened there?"

"I think we should go and talk to the manager of the retirement home again," Flack proposed.

XXXXX

Interviewing the home manager again was wasted time since he couldn't tell them anything they didn't already know. A call to the lab informed them that the fire had been caused by accelerants which meant that it was not an accident.

Meanwhile, it was already past midnight and still no sign of Mac. Stella sank down on a little wall next to the entrance of the burned home and let her head drop into her hands. She shivered, partly from the cold and partly from being tired, exhausted and worried to death.

"Excuse me, Miss?" the husky voice of an old man pulled her out of her thoughts.

Stella looked up and saw an old man in a green parka standing next to Flack who nodded at him.

"Stella, this is Joshua Berthoud. He used to work as a gardener here at the home from time to time and he might have some interesting news for us. Josh, tell Detective Bonasera what you just told me, will you?"

"Sure, Detective," Josh nodded at Flack before he turned to Stella. "I used to be a Marine and I served in Vietnam. When I came back, I couldn't work anymore. Got injured, my body didn't function as it used to and I had nightmares. Government didn't support us and I had to survive by doing part time jobs. I've been doing some garden work and whatever else they asked me to do here around the home – until this rude young guy Steve Something showed up. Tall, strong, young… could work better than I could, so they didn't need me anymore. But they allowed me to hang around and I could eat here when I was hungry. I saw this guy talking to some strange man several times and it looked as if he got money from him. Rich looking man in a big, black car. Then two days ago, I heard him argue with one of the male nurses, they had a real fight. Didn't see the nurse the next day – and then the fire came…"

"You think he was hired to kill the chairman and the nurse found out?" Flack asked while Stella was still trying to connect everything.

"Possible, we can't jump to conclusions yet," she returned. "What about Mac?"

"Who is this Mac?" Josh asked as if he knew something he hadn't told them yet.

"Mac Taylor, he's my partner and chief of our crime lab at the NYPD. He's been missing since last night after he got some mysterious call from someone we don't know yet," Stella told him.

"Mac Taylor – I've heard that name!" Josh called. "I heard this Steve talk to someone on the phone last night, I was hiding in the appliance room because I didn't have a place to sleep…" he explained. "I heard him say 'Am I talking to Mac Taylor? One of your colleagues needs help at a crime scene. … Yeah right, her name is Lindsay Monroe. … Okay, I will let her know you are on the way.' Then he gave an address and hung up. Does this help?"

Stella got very upset and excited. "Yes! Josh – do you remember the address this Steve gave to Detective Taylor?!?" Her voice almost tipped over.

"Of course, Ma'am," he nodded. After he told them the address, Flack nodded knowingly.

"That's in the warehouse district not too far from here. I assume he lured Mac into some abandoned warehouse to set up a trap for him. I'll call for backup and we'll be there in a few minutes. Don't worry, we're gonna find him, Stella. STELLA! WAIT, you can't…" he called, but it was already too late. After hearing the address, Stella ran over to the car and before Flack could even react, she had already taken off.

"Damnit!" he cursed and reached for his radio. "Dispatch, this is Detective Flack. Need backup and a lift for the following address… - possible hostage situation, an NYPD detective might be held there. One detective is already on the way to the scene."

XXXXX

When Stella reached the address that Josh had given her, she hesitated for a moment.

She knew that it was against all sanity, not to mention police rules, to go in without waiting for backup, but she couldn't wait for a second. She got out of the car and carefully closed the door. Then she looked for a way into the dark building. After a while, she found an open door that was only leaning against the doorframe. It gave a low, squeaking sound when she entered. Stella unsecured her gun, took her flashlight and slowly made her way into the darkness.

On street level, the warehouse was mainly a large open space without any kind of equipment. Only some cables and struts indicated that this might have been some sort of factory before it had been abandoned. Stella looked around, there was obviously nobody here. Then she saw stairs leading to a basement. Again she hesitated. Flack had certainly called for backup and they should be here soon. She should really wait. She listened carefully.

Was there a sound in the basement? What harm would it do just to sneak down and check?

She quietly tiptoed downstairs until she hit something metallic which flew away with a loud noise. Stella froze. If there was somebody down here, there was no doubt he knew she was here now. Again she listened into the silent darkness. She narrowed her eyes to focus her senses.

Voices. Two voices. Male. Mac?!? Arguing. A struggle. Noise. The sound of broken glass. One voice. Then a shot. And silence. Deadly silence.

Stella felt her throat being corded up. She grabbed her gun with trembling fingers and slowly walked in the direction where the noise had come from. When she reached a closed door, she listened again. Nothing. She pressed her lips together and tried to take a deep breath, then she cowered and carefully opened the door, her gun pointing in first.

Her eyes slowly got used to the dim light in the next room. Then she saw him. He was sitting on the floor, his back leaning against the wall behind him. Blood was dripping from his left temple. He didn't move.

"MAC!!!" she screamed, all caution was forgotten all at once. She ran over to him and fell down on her knees next to him.

"Oh God, please…" she took his face with her hands and carefully turned his head. "Mac, can you hear me??"

xxx

Tears started streaming down her cheeks when she finally felt a pulse. She pulled him closer into her arms and cried silently until she suddenly remembered the situation. She reached for her flashlight that she had thrown aside and thoroughly checked the room from where she was sitting.

Where was the other man she had heard? Was there another way out of this room and he escaped?

"Stella?" Mac weakly asked and tried to move while she was still holding him.

"Mac! Thank God…" she sniffed, overwhelmed with relief. She wanted to hug him, kiss him, cuddle him all at once. "What happened? Are you alright? You are bleeding! Are you in pain? You have any other injuries? I heard a gunshot and another voice, where is the other guy?"

-

_Crazy how  
I need to have you near me now  
I can't explain  
This feeling now you're back again_

_24 hours heartbreaking  
Hoping your love will stop making  
Me cry_

_- _

She started sobbing again.

"I'm so sorry…" Mac whispered in her arms.

Stella blinked through tear-clouded eyes. "You are sorry?? For WHAT?"

He tried to raise up a little and grimaced from pain that shot through his head. "This is not exactly how I planned our first Valentine's Day together," he said with a wry smile as he looked around. "I can't even give you a present now…"

-

_And I promise  
To love you  
Each and every word I say is true_  
'_Cause I'll always  
Be faithful  
Watchin' over everything you do_

_- _

Stella shook her head, she had to chuckle despite the tears that still hadn't stopped entirely. This was so like him…

"YOU are the most precious present I could ever hope for and we still have so many Valentine's Days to look forward to," she softly whispered in his ear and kissed him tenderly.

"You promise?"

"I promise," she tenderly returned.

-

_So don't you worry  
I'm right here by your side  
It's alright_

_And I promise  
You all my love tonight_

_- _

TBC

**Okay, if you are looking for some Valentine's fluff, check out last year's "Be My Valentine?" ;-) If you already know that, let me know what you think about this one (keep in mind it's not a V-Day story, it just happens to be Feb 14 in the chapter - just like in RL).**

**Thanks for your support! xxxlittlesheepxxx **


	3. Forgotten Heroes

**I know those of you who had started this story have been waiting a full year for the update - SORRY for this! I got so hooked with many other ideas that I didn't put focus on this one and then I decided that I'd let it rest until now for the sake of continuity. It's Valentine's Day again today, just as it was at the end of chapter 2 (the night between Feb 13 and Feb 14 actually). So let's just pretend there hasn't been such a long break (this was only in real life, not in the story!). I'd recommend that you read the first chapters again to recall what happened - I had to do that to when I started finished this one ;-)**

**The short lyric fragment is from the song "Streets of London" by Ralph McTell - it's a great, emotional ballad about people who complain about their problems and shows how minor those ordinary problems are compared to those of homeless, neglected and forgotten members of our society these days.**

* * *

_Chapter 3 – Forgotten Heroes_

"Can you tell me what happened?" Stella asked Mac after she had calmed down.

Mac tried to remember and focus on the important details.

"I got this call the other night, when we were at your place. Some guy called and said a female detective had told him to give me a call, she would need my help at the scene. I asked him if her name was Lindsay Monroe, since I knew it couldn't be you and I wondered who else might have asked for me specifically. He affirmed that it was her and gave me the address of this place. When I got here, I couldn't find anyone. I went in, took a look around – and then he must have knocked me out. Next thing I remember is that I was down here in this basement. Then there was a noise on the stairs, he got distracted, I tried to overpower him, we struggled and he hit me with my gun that he had taken earlier," Mac explained, reaching for the bleeding wound at his temple.

"Thank God…" Stella sighed with relief. "I thought he had shot you and then when I saw you leaning against the wall, blood dripping from your head…"

She shivered. Mac reached for her hand and pressed it softly.

"It's alright, I'm fine. So I assume it was you on the stairs earlier, are you alone here? Where's the backup?"

"On their way here, I guess," Stella admitted guiltily.

Mac gave her a suspicious look. Stella watched him for a moment, then shook her head.

"Don't do that… You look like a Sharpie."

This caused the frown on his forehead to deepen even more. More from a mixture of amusement and feigned pouting, even though he knew he should be mad with her for entering an unsecured building without backup.

"I'll try to give you the short version of a pretty tricky story. Lindsay called about half an hour after you had left, asking if I knew were you were. I said no, wondering because I thought you had been with her. She was at the scene of a burned retirement home, multiple victims. Later Flack and I got called to a homicide on Times Square, victim turned out to be the chairman of the foundation that owns said retirement home. When we got back to talk to the manager again, we met a guy named Josh who had overheard the phone conversation that the mystery caller had with you. He gave us the address and…" she looked at Mac again with an apologetic smile, "and I took Flack's car and headed here. I knew Flack would insist on waiting for backup and I just couldn't sit there and wait, knowing that you might need help…"

"Did you see him?"

"The guy who attacked you? No, I heard a struggle and two voices, then I heard breaking glass and a gunshot, then nothing. That's when I went in. Wait, but if he didn't shoot you, then what happened in here?"

"I don't know," Mac tried to put the pieces together. "I don't remember any glass breaking, neither do I remember a gunshot. That must have happened after he hit me on the head."

In that moment, Flack and some other cops in uniforms came through the door. Flack gave them short orders to clear and secure the room and the rest of the building, then he went over to Stella and Mac.

"Are you okay?" he asked in Stella's direction, who despite Mac's apparent injury at the temple looked more shaken than him.

"Physically alright I guess. My brain and stomach are still a bit out of order. That is, my stomach is out of order. I think my brain is completely out. But I expect it back pretty soon," she replied, forcing her voice to sound as calm as possible.

When she tried to start an apology for going off without him, Flack waved her off.

"Never mind, I'm glad everything's fine. Just promise me, next time you'll wait. At least take me with you if you don't want to wait for backup, will you?"

Stella nodded again, never letting go of Mac whom she was still holding in her arms.

"Detective?!" one of the officers called from a place around the corner.

"Excuse me," Flack said and got up to check on what his men had found. After a short moment he returned with a concerned expression on his face.

"We may have a problem here," he said carefully.

"What is it, Don?" Stella asked.

"There's a body over there, behind the shelves. Looks as if he was shot with Mac's gun…"

* * *

"Are you sure?!" Stella asked after she had picked up her phone several hours later.

It was Valentine's Day now, still early morning and they were at Mac's place after a night without sleep and many holy promises to the doctor to take good care of Mac who against all objections of the doctors insisted on leaving the hospital after a thorough examination of his head injury.

Silence was the answer to her question.

"I'm sorry, Sid. I know you are the best ME far and wide, I didn't mean to question your expertise," she returned in a flirting voice.

"Sweet talker," Sid returned and she could hear his grin over the phone line. "There's absolutely no doubt. The guy shot himself. Of course we can't prove that Mac had been knocked out _before_ the guy got shot, but his prints are on top of Mac's. And since it's Mac's gun, those prints are no surprise at all. What I'm thinking is, the guy knocked Mac out with the gun, then he tried to escape through the window – that must have been the broken glass you heard from the stairs – and when he noticed he couldn't get through fast enough when he heard you coming, he tried to hurt himself with the gun, make it look like Mac shot him while he was trying to run…"

"His aim was just a bit off…" Stella finished the report.

"That will be my final autopsy result," Sid confirmed. "Death through self-inflicted gunshot wound."

Stella let out a long breath of relief. Sid's findings would spare a long investigation and questioning by IAB against Mac.

"Thanks, Sid," she said softly.

"Just doin' my job," he replied calmly. "Give my best to Mac, I'll see you guys back at work on Monday. Take good care of him."

_Was there a wink in his last sentence?_

"I will," she returned. "See you on Monday."

Stella put her phone back into her pocket and went over to Mac who was sitting on the couch, watching TV. She summarized what Sid had told her, snuggling up to his chest, his arm gently wrapped around her.

"Mac?"

"Hum?" he mumbled, his cheek softly pressed against her forehead.

"You know, today is Valentine's Day and … well, this is all about love and charity and being good to others and…"

"I would love to offer you the whole program with candlelight dinner, dancing and everything, but…" Mac motioned at the large band-aid at his temple with an apologetic look. "I have strict order to stay at home and rest."

"Yeah, I know. And my orders are to restrain you if you violate yours. But that's not what I meant. See, I met this guy Josh last night? The one who had overheard the phone call that had lured you to that warehouse? He's a Vietnam veteran and the government is doing nothing to support him, he used to help out at the retirement home by doing some gardening work from time to time, but he's too old and physically not capable because of old war injuries to do hard work and they had hired someone permanent and now that the home has burned down and will most likely remain closed…" she paused briefly. "He doesn't have a place to stay and no job and…"

-

_In our winter city_

_The rain cries a little pity_

_For one more forgotten hero_

_In a world that doesn't care_

-

"Yes, he has," Mac interrupted her with a soft smile, his arm still around her, his fingers gently caressing her face.

"What?!?"

"I talked to Don while you made your statement to the officers at the scene before we went to the hospital and asked him about this Josh. I wanted to know about him after you had told me what he had done. He saved my life, without his help, well let's not go there now. Anyway, Don told me a little about him and I made a call and explained a little about our duty to honor our veterans and … well, we have a new part-time doorman in security at the lab."

Stella's eyes widened in surprise and one little tear escaped and rolled down her right cheek.

"Thanks…" she whispered barely audible. "This is the best Valentine's gift I ever got."

She sniffled slightly embarrassed about her emotional reaction.

"This is almost a bit fluffy, hum?"

Mac looked down at her, his eyes filled with tenderness. He wiped the tear away with his thumb and kissed her softly while pulling her closer.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Fluffy…"

TBC

* * *

**Happy Valentine's everyone :-) Let me know what you think about this one - check out my other stuff if you haven't already done so - and ... well, updates should follow more frequently now. I'm working on so many things, something will eventually show up in your mail box as an alert ;-) Thanks for everything - xxxlittlesheepxxx**


End file.
